Topic: Disinfecting masks in commercial environment (Read 486 times)

We now need to wear n95 masks at work. Management is trying to come up with a way to disinfect them. My initial thought was sodium percarbonate in water as oxygen source with masks hanging above the water all enclosed in a chamber to keep oxygen concentration in air high.

Would this be a good way to approach the problem? If so, what sodium percarbonate concentration should we target as a function of the volume of the chamber to yield oxygen concentration in the air high enough to disinfect?

1oz of sodium percarbonate yields about 1% h2o2 concentration in water, but I am having trouble extrapolating it to O2 concentration in air above the water pot.

I don't grasp the bizarre process of percarbonate in water but masks outside the water. My spontaneous thoughts (but I'm very bad on biology) would be:

Sterilize in an authentic autoclave. Maybe a cooking autoclave, with water - but only if no exiting vapour carries viruses.

Wash in a washing machine, with washing powder, preferably hot if the masks survive that.

Immerse the masks in the percarbonated water.

Percarbonate in water releases hydrogen peroxide. This isn't still oxygen in water: the peroxide must decompose first, and this reaction is hard to predict. So, no way to predict an oxygen concentration above the solution, but the probable outcome is: normal air. And I'm not sure at all that O2 destroys viruses. Peroxide is much more active.

If you achieved oxygen around the masks, for which an oxygen bottle is much simpler and predictable, it would be a BIG explosion risk, possibly with detonation. Organic fabrics burn well, in an enclosure: boom.

[...] I bet you have no ability to tell if it works, or whether you've lowered the efficacy of the masks.

That's one advantage of the washing machine with washing powder. Their effects on clothes are well known. If the masks are designed for 90°C washing, a decent washing powder is supposed to destroy viruses. With other processes, one taps in the dark.

Thanks all for the discussion and recommendations. My manager took the easy way out and said that "everyone should maintain and clean their own mask"... I guess i should've expected something similar from a $70 billion dollar company... They didn't make all those billions by spending moneys.